The Castle (TV)

The Castle is Haneke's interpretation of Franz Kafka's unfinished prose piece of the same name. The film follows the efforts of a surveyor named 'K', as he wrangles with the impenetrable bureaucracy of a governmental department which has summoned him for a work project, but once arrived, refuses to acknowledge his existence. Set somewhere between Kafka's time and contemporary Austria, it has the feel of a timeless parable. The style of the film is not absurdist in the manner of what one would expect from a work by Kafka; instead Haneke chooses to highlight the realistic elements of the tale, making its rendering grotesquely frustrating.